Ben Seaton won the junior high race at the Proctor meet on Tuesday, October 20, with a strong sprint at the finish.
We thought the weather had been about as bad as it could get at Hibbing, but it was worse at Proctor. High 30s, windy, overcast and raining. The team just wanted to get in, race and get out. And that is what we did. On the way out, the bus was loaded down with a lot of soggy clothing and a lot of hardware. The cross-country Vikings won the boys and girls class A varsity and junior high team races. In addition, we took nine individual varsity medals, including Kieran Scannell’s second straight individual title, 13 individual junior high awards, including Ben Seaton’s overall championship, and 21 individual junior varsity awards. Amazing! Sixteen teams were entered in the Proctor Invitational, 11 Class A schools and 5 AA schools. All the Duluth area schools, plus all the Polar League schools and a few of the Hinckley area schools were there. Missing were the Iron Range Schools, admittedly the strongest Class A boys’ teams in section 7A this year. In addition, archrival Esko was missing a number of their top runners. But hey, you have to be there to win.
The varsity girls were off first. We held all conference runner Ailee Larson out, as she had a virus and had been feeling run down. Otherwise, we were fit and ready to go.
At the gun, Signe Larson was out with the leaders, and Sonja Peterson was close behind. Michelle Weitz was leading our next group, including Anna Schield and Mercedes Leininger. Molly Rider and Amber Fletcher were a little ways back in the middle of the 110-girl field of combined A/AA and Varsity/ JV runners.
Our JV girls were running strong too, especially Mara MacDonell, just a short distance back of our varsity runners. We pretty much stayed that way for the second loop, although Signe was starting to make the kind of faces that say, “Maybe I went out too fast.” Coming to the finish, she held on gamely, finishing fifth in 16:38. Sonja closed some on her and finished with a nice sprint in 16:54. Mercedes had moved up, finishing 10th in 17:24, with Anna next in 17:33 and Michelle four places back in 18:06. Amber and Molly rounded out our varsity team, running 19:23 and 20:12 respectively.
Mara led our JV runners, finishing in a big PR (personal record) of 20:39, good for eighth. Amber Todd was four places back in 22:04. Katrina Axtell – 23:10, Sarah O’Phelan – 24:12 and Cheyenne Sorlie – 24:56 completed our JV scoring. The Varsity girls beat second place Proctor 25-40. In fact, they were only three points behind Class AA Duluth East in the combined results – maybe we should have run Ailee? It’s always a feather in your cap to beat East, one of the best programs in the state.
The girls were followed quickly by the varsity/ JV boys, with a combined 160-runner field. Duluth Denfeld, Duluth East and Proctor took it out fast, while team leader Kieran Scannell kept everyone in sight. As usual, Drew Holmen and David Bergstrom went out in the top quarter, with Josh Ensign close behind, and Darren Waha in the top half of the field. Moved up from junior high, eighth grader Joey Chmelik and seventh grader Daniel Ahrendt were pacing our JV runners.
Coming around for the third lap, Kieran still had a couple Class A boys ahead of him, along with a few AA runners. As he came up the final hill, he was closing on the last of the A runners. Kieran moved around him, rounded the corner, and put the pedal to the metal. Although he didn’t pull away, he wasn’t caught – winning in 17:20. Meanwhile Drew had picked it up, dropping David and clawing his was up to fourth, running 18:21, another big PR that put him 13th on our all-time list, only 23 seconds behind big brother Ian’s best – interestingly on the same course three years ago.
Meanwhile, David cruised in sixth, running 18:50, Josh ran 19:11, finishing 11th and Darren had an excellent run, going 20:41 for a big PR and 25th place.
Joey led our JV team, running 21:17 and seventh place, Daniel held on for ninth in 21:58 – both outstanding times for such young runners. Alex Ditmanson was two places back in 22:26, his brother Daniel close in 22:48 and Sebastian Schnobrich rounding out the team in 25:24. Surprisingly, the Varsity boys won the team title, beating second place Duluth Marshall 41-55.
Finally, we were ready for the short, fast junior high race. Only 1.1 mile, it goes quick. For a change of pace, we moved ninth grade varsity runners Ben Seaton and Shelby Ahrendt down to run this race. They had been key players on the varsity teams, pushing hard in the middle of the field, usually as our fifth or sixth runners. We told them to get out fast, as other teams would also have a few varsity runners in the race.
Ben responded quickly, taking the lead in the first third of the race. Shelby was a little slow to get going, which ultimately cost her the win. Coming to the finish, Ben had shed everyone but a guy from Moose Lake. Theguy sat behind Ben the entire race. Since Ben is not known as a sprinter, I had my doubts. But like Kieran, he went for it in the finishing stretch, eventually putting a little distance on the pursuer and winning in 6:34. You should have seen the look on his face!
Meanwhile, Shelby had caught all but one
runner, and finished strong in 7:32. Enjoy it, you’re both back to varsity next week.
Meanwhile Joe Rauzi ran a solid 7:47 placing 17th in 7:47, Luke Fenwick was next in 7:51, Pete Summers, returning from appendix surgery, 25th in 7:55, Lars Scannell in 8:05, right ahead of Ben Resek in 8:10, Sean MacDonnell in 8:31, R oma n Schnobrich in 8:34 and Will Seaton in 8:51. Being so strong and so deep, it was no surprise the boys won.
Rose Ingebrigtsen, Audrey Summers and Kara Ramey were 13th, 14th and 15th in 8:16, 8:18 and 8:20, with CC Schnobrich a short ways back in 8:44. Thai exchange student Nuchada Srisittipoj, still not liking northern Minnesota weather, finished with a smile on her face, running 10:26. Like the boys, the girls were strong and deep, claiming the team title easily.
Proctor concluded the regular season. Next up are the Section 7A finals in Cloquet on Thursday, October 29th. With the top two teams and top 10 individuals qualifying for state, I’m betting we will be headed to Northfield for the eighth year in a row. Thequestion is how many will be running?
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